CORRELATIONS INVOLVING OIL AND FATTY ACIDS IN RAPESEED

Four populations of rapeseed plants (Brassica napus L.) were used in an investigation of the correlation of seed oil and its component fatty acids; the constituents of the oil were palmitic, oleic, linoleic, linolenic, and eicosenoic acids. Oil content was calculated as percent of the dry weight of the seed and fatty acids from the oil as percent of total fatty acids (TFA) and as percent of seed. Correlation coefficients were calculated for all pairs of fatty acids and for oil and each fatty acid.When fatty acids were expressed as percent of TFA, there was a strong tendency for negative correlations between oleic and other fatty acids and a tendency for positive correlation between linoleic and linolenic. These results are essentially similar to published correlations. When fatty acids were expressed as percent of seed, there were no consistently significant correlations for any pair of fatty acids in the four populations of rapeseed plants.When fatty acids were expressed as percent of TFA and oil as percent of seed, there were several consistently high negative correlations between oil and fatty acids. When both fatty acids and oil were expressed as percent of seed, most of the correlations between oil and fatty acids were positive, as might be expected since fatty acids are a part of the oil.